The purpose of responsible and ethical operations and the Code of Conduct that guides them is to help everyone in Employment Fund act correctly in all situations, even when there is no one present to witness it. The Code of Conduct aims to ensure and guide our operating culture to act transparently, honestly and as a unified team.
Employment Fund’s Board of Directors has approved the Fund’s Code of Conduct, which is updated on a regular basis.
The Code of Conduct comprises the following sections:
To view the Code of Conduct in detail, please click the link below. Employment Fund’s internal instructions provide more detailed information on the subject areas.
Code of Conduct for Suppliers defines the minimum principles applicable to each product or service that a supplier must comply with when cooperating with the Employment Fund. These minimum principles are in line with the UN principles on business and human rights, the Global Compact principles and the principles of the ILO International Labour Organisation.
You can read the different sections of the Code of Conduct for Supplier below or download it via the link below.
Employment Fund’s duties are based on the Act on the Financing of Unemployment Benefits and the Government Decree on the Rules of Procedure of Employment Fund. Other legislation (e.g. Employment Contracts Act and the Act on Adult Education Benefits) also contains provisions on the Fund’s duties.
We collect unemployment insurance contributions which are used e.g. to fund most of the unemployment security, earnings-related pensions accumulated during unemployment security, pay security, and transition security for employees aged 55 or over. We also fund adult education allowances and scholarships for qualified employees. We grant adult education allowances until the end of 2025. Our clients are all employers that provide employment as well as employees aged 18-64 in Finland.
We operate in the administrative branch of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health. Employment Fund is an independent fund managed by labour market parties and supervised by the Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority.
Our operations are based on our shared values:
This Code of Conduct for Suppliers defines the minimum principles that each supplier providing products or services to Employment Fund (hereinafter called “the Supplier”) must comply with when cooperating with Employment Fund.
These minimum principles are consistent with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the Global Compact and the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work.
Our Suppliers must undertake to comply with this Code of Conduct and ensure that the minimum principles set out in the Code of Conduct are met in their own actions and their supply chains.
In addition to legislation, the Supplier must comply with Employment Fund’s Code of Conduct for Suppliers when providing services, goods and solutions to Employment Fund.
The Supplier shall not directly or indirectly request or accept any payments or other compensations that could affect the supplier’s business decisions in a way not in keeping with honest practices in industrial or commercial matters.
The Supplier
The Supplier undertakes to contribute to preventing prohibited restrictions of competition and to support sustainable procurement in its supply chain.
Sustainable procurement means that the Supplier commits to carefully selecting its business partners, and identifying and preventing illegal business activities in their supply chain or risks related to violations of this Code of Conduct.
The Supplier ensures that the goods and services it sells have been produced in an environmentally responsible manner. The Supplier seeks to conduct environmental impact assessments covering the entire life cycle of goods and services and to set requirements for environmental friendliness and carbon footprint reduction also in its supply chain. Any generated waste is recycled and/or disposed of in a legal and responsible manner.
The Supplier is encouraged to use a certified environmental management system or a systematic environmental management scheme described in writing and to use and develop environmentally friendly solutions.
The Supplier undertakes to use and store carefully the property and information provided to it in the contractual relationship between Employment Fund and the Supplier.
The Supplier respects the immaterial property rights of Employment Fund and third parties and undertakes to protect Employment Fund’s confidential information from unauthorised use and publication.
The Supplier is obliged to respect human rights both in its own operations and in its supply chain and takes care of employee well-being. Through operational practices, and monitoring and steering mechanisms, the Supplier seeks to ensure that it is not involved, directly or indirectly, in human rights violations. The Supplier also requires the respect of human rights from companies belonging to its supply chain.
The Supplier
The work environment must be healthy and safe for employees. This means that, at the workplace, employees are not exposed to conditions that may pose a risk to their physical or mental health.
The purpose of the transparency of the supply chain is to ensure compliance with the obligations imposed by this Code of Conduct. The Supplier and/or its parent company shall publish a free-form responsibility report on an annual basis.
To monitor compliance with the obligations, Employment Fund may require the supplier to present reports and documents, to correct observed shortcomings and to present a report on the completion of corrective measures. Employment Fund may audit the supplier and/or its subcontractors in accordance with the terms of the procurement contract.
Any activities in violation of this Code of Conduct for Suppliers may be reported to Employment Fund as follows:
The whistleblowing channel is the Employment Fund’s confidential reporting channel. It is of the utmost importance for the Employment Fund to respond to any suspected or alleged misconduct. By preventing and responding to misconduct, we not only provide the Employment Fund with financial security but also influence the reputation of the Employment Fund as well as the trust of the personnel and other stakeholders.
The Employment Fund’s employees and other stakeholders can both use the whistleblowing channel. The whistleblowing channel can be used to report any information or justifiable suspicions of which the whistleblower has become aware in conjunction with their work, task or job regarding matters specified in the Whistleblower Act or violations of the Employment Fund’s ethical guidelines or suspected breach of the rules and regulations of the financial market.
Reports in accordance with the Whistleblower Act (in Finnish) may, for example, concern issues such as:
In HR-related matters (such as harassment, discrimination, occupational safety or workplace atmosphere), the primary communication channel is the Employment Fund’s HR department. In this case, the current labour laws and other applicable laws shall apply.
Misconduct may result in consequences for the Employment Fund and its employees, investors, customers, other stakeholders or individuals.
Although you do not need to have proof to support your suspicions, you should submit your report in good faith.
A report can be submitted without concrete evidence or absolute certainty of whether an offence has taken place or not. The whistleblower may have either knowledge or a justified suspicion of the occurrence of an offence. You can submit a report here
In order to ensure anonymity, the whistleblowing system is administered by our third-party partner, WhistleB (Whistleblowing Centre). The whistleblowing procedure is encrypted and password-protected. All reports are processed in strict confidence and in compliance with confidentiality provisions.
All reports submitted via the whistleblowing system are processed by a separate report processing team established by Employment Fund. On a case-by-case basis, it may be necessary to use specific other experts to investigate a matter. Both members of the processing team and any experts assisting with the investigation of the case must be familiar with the general principles of disqualification and recuse themselves from processing an individual report if its content is linked to the person processing the report for work-related reasons. Periodically, statistical data regarding the number and nature of reports received is also reported to governing bodies.
An acknowledgement of receipt is issued to the whistleblower within seven days of the receipt of the report through the whistleblowing system and the further measures pursuant to the specified report processing procedure are taken to verify the validity of the report and, if necessary, intervene. Once the investigation is complete, or at the latest within three months of issuing the acknowledgement of receipt, the whistleblower will be notified of the measures taken on the basis of the report.
The personal data and other information of whistleblowers or other parties concerned is processed in compliance with legislation valid at the time of processing as well as our data protection policy.
For detailed information on personal data processing, see our data protection notice.
Please note that the system is not intended for customer feedback. You can submit customer feedback using our general contact information.
Employment Fund’s whistleblowing system is the primary channel for reporting suspected offences. You can submit a report here
Suspected misconduct may be reported through the centralised external reporting channel of the Office of the Chancellor of Justice provided that the matter is subject to the scope of the Whistleblower Act and
For more information on whistleblowing, see the Office of the Chancellor of Justice website.
